The Motorola Droid XYBoard 8.2 is the Motorola Droid XYBoard 10.1's little brother on Verizon. But it's not all that little: at 8.2" it offers more to feast your eyes on vs. more common 7" Android tablets, yet it's much more portable than 10" tablets. The XYBoard 8.2 shares many but not all specs with the 10.1" version. It has the same 1280 x 800 resolution, and IPS display, a dual core 1.2GHz TI OMAP CPU with a gig of RAM, and it's available in 16 or 32 gig capacities. It has a front 1.3MP camera and a rear 5MP camera with LED flash and the usual WiFi 8902.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and a GPS.

Like the Droid XYoard 10.1 it has an IR Blaster with Digit, an AV remote control app plus TV Guide, and it has 4G LTE as well as 3G on Verizon Wireless. It's available in Verizon stores with our without contract, and the 16 gig version costs $429 with contract and $599 without (you can sign up for month to month data with no contract). The 32 gig version costs $100 more. So, like most 4G LTE tablets on the US market, it ain't cheap. But it is well made, extremely sturdy and has a Gorilla Glass display for scratch resistance. Will there be a WiFi only version like the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition in Europe? My guess is yes, but I'd expect as with the Motorola Xoom that Verizon Wireless has a period of exclusivity.

What's different, beyond size, from the XYBoard 10.1? The 8.2" model lacks Droid XYBoard 10.1's active digitizer and digital pen (the XYBoard 10.1 pen doesn't work with the 8.2), the ports and controls are in different locations and the XYBoard 8.2 has a smaller battery: 3960 vs. 7000 mAh. That means you'll have to resort to a less precise capacitive stylus with the Xyboard 8.2 if you want to write notes or draw, and battery life is shorter. Smaller tablets generally have shorter battery life because there's less room for the battery, and Motorola wanted to make the XYBoard 8.2 very thin and light: it weighs 0.86 pounds and is 0.35" thick. Personally, I'd pick the 10.1 given the benefits and better control location unless you're understandably sold on the 8.2's tweener size.

The tablet runs Android OS 3.2 Honeycomb and will get an upgrade to Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This is fairly vanilla Android with no home screen or UI customizations beyond Moto's square icon treatment. The app bundle is fairly restrained and Motorola doesn't include all the business oriented apps found on the XYBoard 10.1 (but some, like Citrix are downloadable). Motocast is here, and we really love this remote file access and streaming media player that works with Windows and Macs.